{"id":20271,"date":"2026-01-25T13:34:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T08:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=20271"},"modified":"2026-01-27T15:26:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T09:56:06","slug":"forever-chemicals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/forever-chemicals\/","title":{"rendered":"Forever Chemicals"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Forever Chemicals<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When scientists tested human blood samples collected from 2003 to 2021, they found that levels of older PFAS, a.k.a. \u201cForever chemicals\u201d dropped by 86% because manufacturers stopped producing them.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Forever Chemicals<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Forever chemicals, or <\/span><b>PFAS (per- and poly- fluoroalkyl substances<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">), are a large chemical family of thousands of <\/span><b>highly persistent, toxic, man-made, hazardous chemicals.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PFAS molecules have a <\/span><b>chain of linked carbon and fluorine atoms<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Because the <\/span><b>carbon-fluorine bond<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is <\/span><b>one of the strongest<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, these chemicals <\/span><b>do not degrade easily<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the environment.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The name \u2018forever chemicals\u2019 comes from the fact that they<\/span><b> remain in the environment without breaking down for generations,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> if ever.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>In manufacturing<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, PFAS are<\/span><b> favoured for their durability <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and useful <\/span><b>properties <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">such as <\/span><b>non-stick, water repellence, and anti-grease.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PFAS are used in the manufacture of many<\/span><b> domestic products<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, including:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>skin creams and cosmetics,<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">car and floor <\/span><b>polish<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">rinse aid for dishwashers,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>textile <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and fabric treatments,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>food packaging and microwave popcorn bags,<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">baking equipment,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>frying pans<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">outdoor clothing and shoes.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They also have many and widespread <\/span><b>uses in industry, including in firefighting foam.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over time, PFAS may <\/span><b>leak into the soil, water, and air.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>People <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are most likely <\/span><b>exposed <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to these chemicals <\/span><b>by consuming PFAS-contaminated water or food, using products made with PFAS<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, or <\/span><b>breathing air containing PFAS<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because PFAS breaks down slowly, if at all, people and animals are <\/span><b>repeatedly exposed <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to them, and <\/span><b>blood levels of some PFAS can build up<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> over time.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Impacts of PFAS on Human Health<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Forever chemicals have been linked to multiple health problems, including<\/span><b> compromised immune systems, liver damage<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, thyroid diseases, <\/span><b>increased cholesterol levels, hypertension,<\/b> <b>developmental delays in infants<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and increased certain <\/span><b>cancers <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">such as kidney and testicular.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Regulation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The <\/span><b>Stockholm Convention <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">has <\/span><b>listed some PFAS, such as Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), as persistent organic pollutants (POPs).<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/ccidist-ws\/th\/th_delhi\/issues\/167742\/OPS\/GU9FG0UHH.1+GHFFG368H.1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Forever chemicals, or PFAS (per- and poly- fluoroalkyl substances), are a large chemical family of thousands of highly persistent, toxic, man-made, hazardous chemicals. Read more about Forever Chemicals, Impact, Regulation, Latest News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":84403,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4949,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-20271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-forever-chemicals","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}